Northeast Regional Student Steel Bridge Competition at UMaine April 2
Contact: Nick Houtman, Dept. of Public Affairs and Marketing, 207-581-3777
ORONO, Maine — College student engineers from across New England will become bridge builders for a day when they bring their custom designed steel bridges to the University of Maine’s Wells Commons on April 2. They will compete in the Northeast Regional Student Steel Bridge Competition, an event sponsored nationally by the American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC) and the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE).
Two winning teams could end up going to national competition at the University of Central Florida in Orlando at the end of May.
About 130 students are expected to participate. In addition to UMaine, teams will come from Merrimack College, Northeastern University, Norwich University, Roger Williams University, Tufts University, University of Connecticut, University of New Hampshire, Wentworth Institute of Technology, Worcester Polytechnic Institute and University of Vermont.
The UMaine team consists of 15 students who designed and drafted plans for their bridge using computer software and their own design knowledge. Local sponsors include Bangor Steel, which contributed most of the steel, and Newport Industrial, which donated some cutting and drilling services. Other local sponsors include Cianbro, Inc., Cives Steel, Hammond Lumber, Kiewit Construction, RW Gillespie, Sebago Technics, Inc., Sigma and Aldrich, TY Lin International, and the College of Engineering and Student Government at UMaine.
“Members of the team have done the rest of the work themselves, more cutting, drilling and all of the welding,” says Lauren Swett, team member from Old Town and a graduate student in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CIE). “The time and effort put in by some of the students has resulted in a very impressive bridge that showcases a lot of talent in both design and hands on engineering.”
Jamie Morneau of Smithfield is the team captain. Other members of the team, all CIE students, include: Benjamin Jewell, Hampden; Chris Fournier, Biddeford; Chris Lyons, Fairfield; Keenan Goslin and Mike Swett of Old Town; Kourtney Tourigny, Sheena Bitetti and Kisch Peters, all of York; Nick Flagg, Farmington; Ken Fortier, Ellsworth; Richard Dunton, Rumford; Justin Desjarlais, Otisville, Michigan; and Ariel Reuning, Dover, Delaware. Bill Davids, associate professor in CIE, is the team advisor.
“The steel bridge competition gives the students an opportunity to apply their classroom knowledge to a challenging, real-world civil engineering design problem. In addition, the level of teamwork, organizational skills, and time commitment required of the students, especially when hosting the competition, are significant,” says Davids.
The competition requires students to erect a bridge from steel parts that they have designed and built. Those parts cannot weigh more than 20 pounds each or measure more than three and a half feet long. Judges evaluate the bridges for durability, constructability, usability, stiffness, construction speed, efficiency, economy and aesthetics.
The competition will get underway with registration at 7 a.m. and construction starting at 8 a.m. Teams will continue to work throughout the day. Scores will be posted as judges complete their reviews for each part of the competition. A dinner will be held in Wells Commons at 7 p.m. with Alan Fisher of Cianbro Construction speaking on “Bridge Construction Design.”
More information about the event is here.